A/N: we're almost at the end, my friends. :)
The shimmering veil of gold and brown of the subspace vortex the Xindi ship used to travel opened, letting them slip above Talos IV. Carol spared a fleeting thought to what might be going on the planet that was so grave, that Starfleet had declared it off limits, but she had no time to dwell on it now, as her fingers pounded the thick keys of an Insectoid control panel to manipulate the sensors. She grimaced, when her efforts proved futile.
"The sensors won't lock. The two planets are too far away. We need to get closer to Talos III."
"I can see that," he replied. "Moving into orbit."
She squinted, all but leaning over her view-screen. "Sensor detecting a starbase-like structure in the northern hemisphere. Scanning for the energy signature of nuclear batteries."
"The Starfleet ships have seen us. Estimated arrival in seven minutes."
The warning flew past her. A grin split up her face, as joy bubbled up in her chest. "I found them! All seventy-two," she said pointing to the flicking dots indicating the antiquated atomic batteries powering the cryotubes.
Khan looked at her with luminous eyes, a small smile flourishing on his lips, as happiness suffused his face. His fingers moved rapidly on the command console, activating the transporter to beam the pods on board and into the cargo bay. Carol spared the screen a quick glance to make certain nothing impeded the process.
"I have to go," she stated, once she was sure all was going well.
His eyes didn't stray from his own screen, as he grasped her upper left arm, his grip firm and secure. "Carol, they are not just my family. I have a duty to them. They followed me to outer space only to end up in an ice prison."
"I know," she said automatically, keenly aware of every second that ticked by. She wondered if he had ever entertained the illusion that it could end in any other way for the two of them. As far as she was concerned, parting with him while she was still alive was a considerable improvement over her initial expectations. However, something thorny sat within the left side of her chest. She gazed at his profile, alive with rare delight. Everything they had lived together came tumbling back to her, the contradiction between the man who had taken so much from her and the one she had come to know and who had given her a twisted sort of comfort standing in an even starker contrast. It occurred to her that this was the last time she would see him. She should be relieved to finally be rid of him, the peril he posed removed from Federation space, but instead she didn't know how she felt, her emotions hovering in a nebulous zone that was distant from hate and anger, but not approaching anything else that she could clearly discern, either.
He turned to look at her. "You have the subspace frequencies of this ship. I'll keep a channel open, should you ever decide to try and find us."
"That might not be safe," she countered. "Besides, I'll most likely be in containment indefinitely."
A shadow darkened his eyes. "I'll keep the channel open regardless," he said meaningfully.
Her heart leaped in her throat. "Fair winds on the forbidden seas and take care not to land on any barbarous coasts," she wished him, paraphrasing the book he loved so much, and leaned to press a quick kiss to his lips.
His eyes grew warm and soft and his hand ran down her arm and all the way to the tip of her fingers, which he squeezed briefly. "Farewell, Carol." Their hands parted. He gave her a tiny, sad smile. "I love you."
The thorn in her left side screwed its way into her heart. His confession uttered with simple honesty floored her, even if she could not return the sentiment. She just nodded, left with nothing else to say, then with one last half-hearted smile she sprinted off the bridge.
# # #
Carol watched Phlox's ship break apart from her escape pod with a good measure of guilt. It was unfair that they deprived the doctor of his vessel, after everything he had done for them, but under the circumstances it could not be helped. The opening energy portal swallowing the Xindi ship magnified the explosion, appearing to engulf it as well. The Enterprise and the Reliant were hovering nearby, silhouetted against the background of Talos III. Carol heaved an uneasy sigh. There was a heavy knot in the pit of her stomach. For some reason she didn't care to look into, the thought of never seeing Khan again stung. Her left leg was blessedly devoid of the ghost of pain haunting bone and muscle. There was another ache she felt in its stead, the one of the bite mark, with which Khan had left her.
"Good-bye, Captain Ahab," she murmured.
# # #
A month earlier
To any casual observer they were two professional acquaintances enjoying a late lunch in one of San Francisco's floating restaurants: a distinguished Starfleet officer and one of the few surviving graduates of the Vulcan Science Academy. Given the mid-afternoon hour, the place was mostly empty, but still they occupied a discreet table by one of the large window overlooking the Presidio below. They kept quiet, while the waiter put a roast beef before him and a plate of Kleetanta in front of his companion.
"There still has been no sign of Doctor Phlox's ship, Sir," Valeris said, once the waiter was out of earshot. "Are you certain you still don't wish you to speak to him about Doctor Marcus' escape? Perhaps she has made contact with him since."
Cartwright leaned back in his seat. "No, Phlox is a hero, the last surviving member of the crew of Enterprise NX-01. If he files a formal protest with Command and he will, if we pressure him, there will be a formal investigation, which might compromise our low profile."
"Very well," she confirmed. "May I ask a question, Sir?"
He nodded over a mouthful of his beef.
"Do you believe Carol Marcus to be alive still?"
The question took him aback. He tipped his fork on the edge of the plate. "No, I don't," he said regretfully. He had greatly respected the late Admiral Marcus, who had been a mentor of sorts to him, and it pained him to think that his beloved daughter had so carelessly thrown her life away. He had had great hopes of working with such a brilliant and highly-qualified officer. "He killed her the moment he got to his feet," he added. "And believe me, he found a way to. Her death is a terrible missed opportunity for us."
"Why would she rescue him then and expose herself to such a risk?"
Cartwright shook his head mournfully. "She was a distressed young woman, who had suffered a great loss. She wasn't thinking clearly."
"How would you like us to proceed then?" she asked in that infuriatingly even Vulcan tone of hers. But then Valeris might not show any regard to anyone, but she was one of the Section's most efficient operatives.
"Khan will come for his crew. Of that I'm sure."
"Should we not move them?"
"Too risky at this point. It might attract unwanted attention to the relocation of our destroyed London base to Talos III." He considered their options, while he cut into his roast. "No, let him
come. We will be waiting and we won't be the only ones."
"Sir?" she inquired, her left eyebrow lifting to the improbable heights only a Vulcan could achieve.
"Starfleet is about to deploy a new generation of sensor drones along Federation borders. My position with the Tactical Analysis Division permits me access to them. This is why I asked you here today, as a matter of fact. I need you to design a virus to be keyed into the drones in the vicinity of the Talosian system so they'll transmit a false distress signal. Since this is a security breach at the highest level, a ship, maybe more, will be dispatched to investigate the problem."
"Given the severity of the penalty for approaching the forth planet, it is logical to assume that any such ship will not enter the system, hence assuring that our base on Talos III will not be discovered."
He nodded. "Exactly. The signal will also have to be self-replicating to assure ships will be dropping by for a while. If Khan tries to rescue his crew, he'll either be stopped. Even if he can get away, he'll put the fleet on general alert and there will be nowhere for him to hide from them. He can't pull the same stunt with the Klingons again, because according to our intelligence they've tripled their security since that incident in the Ketha province. He can't run to our allies, because they'll let us know, and he can't go the Romulans, because they are in the habit of shooting down anything that comes close to their borders. He'll be trapped."
"That is a sound plan," she said, a slight lilt to her voice. "I presume we have prepared an explanation for the presence of the cryopods on Talos III, should the question arise."
He shrugged. That one was easy. "Too dangerous to be preserved anywhere near Earth again," he replied coolly.
The ghost of a smile touched her lips. "Aye, Sir. I will start to work on the virus as soon as we finish our meal."
# # #
"Come in," Carol said, as soon as the door chimed.
Jim Kirk entered a second later. She gave him a wan smile. "You are the most gracious jailor anyone could ask for," she told him gesturing to the tea and the bowl of actual fresh fruit he had gotten her from somewhere. "Come, have a seat," she added indicating the chair across the desk from her.
He took a few wary steps inside her quarters, looking uncharacteristically shifty. "Carol... I was ordered to drop you off at Starbase 11. From there you are to be taken Earth to be court-martialed. Given the sensitive nature of what happened in the Talosian system, your trial will be classified. I requested permission to attend it and was granted. Doctor McCoy and Doctor M'Benga want to testify on your behalf, as soon as you wave your right to confidentiality." He came to sit opposite from her, his sky-blue eyes honest and alight with kindness and pity.
"Please, give them my thanks. And yes, I'll wave my right."
"Good." He nodded, blinking a few times. "Spock has been looking through the records of JAG lawyers. He can recommend you the best." He paused, as she conveyed her thanks again, his tired face taking on a pleading expression. His hand sneaked across the table to cover her left one. "Carol... I know you didn't do this... that you wouldn't, no matter what. Please, tell me what happened. Whatever it is, you can trust me."
She did, but she could not tell him the truth, despite the fact that she wanted to confide in him to such a degree, that there was a near physicality to the impulse. In fact, she almost blurted it all out, the unspoken words burning her tongue. But then Khan's thick baritone resounded in her mind, his parting love declaration vibrating against her eardrums. It felt unreal. Had he really said it? Had he done it in an attempt to ensure her keeping the augments' secret? That was actually easier to comprehend than the terrifying alternative that he had meant it. If he had, she had to wonder which one of them had fallen prey to Stockholm syndrome somewhere along the road of their unclear and uneven dynamic, as they had meandered through the Badlands, into Xindi space and finally to Talos III. A part of her genuinely hoped they had indeed shared a folie a deux; it made the thought of her completely wrecking her future and losing her freedom to protect Khan Noonien Singh and his family easier to bear.
Carol shifted her hand in Jim's grasp, knitting their fingers together. "What he did before he died wasn't who my father was," she said suddenly, surprised herself at how choked out she sounded. Kirk's eyes widened, a hint of sorrow darkening them. When he didn't speak, she went on.
"My parents split up when I was practically still a baby, but that had no impact on my relationship with him, even if we did live on different continents. We were always very close. I got along with him better than with my mother. I used to be able to confide in him about everything... the smallest, stupidest things. Growing up my friends envied out connection, going on and on about how much they wished they had such an understanding parent. He always supported me, he didn't even pressure me to join Starfleet and when I told him I was considering it, he was honest with me about the pros and cons of a career as an officer." She paused, swallowing past the lump in her throat, and Jim squeezed her hand harder. The loss of her father still hurt, the grief settled permanently within her like a brand on her soul. About that much she could be sincere. "Until I got wind of those bloody torpedoes and... well, you know the rest. I don't know what happened to him, Jim, how he got to the point where he fired on the Enterprise. And now we'll never have a chance to talk it out, because that... because Khan took him from me. I'm sorry, I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I couldn't let him live, I couldn't let him take someone else's family from them." She drew in a shaky breath, realizing that what she was telling him was a twisted version of the truth: she was defending someone's right to keep their family.
Kirk was looking at her with both affection and remorse in his gaze. "No, Carol, I am sorry," he said softly. "I'm sorry we couldn't do more for you, before it came down to this."
Tears prickled at her eyes, making them itchy. "It's alright," she uttered with a faint smile. "You did enough. You give me a new family... even if only for a while."
TBC